With This Ring
( A novel by Pastor Taiwo Iredele Odubiyi )
Cont’d – 6
Femi had laughed and thanked the security man. As he proceeded to the church office, he had thought about it. The lady must have come back right after he dropped her off at her house. Interesting. He didn’t bother to ask her about it when he saw her the next Sunday. And though he remained pleasant to her, he distanced himself.
And in New York, one of the choristers had told him she loved him and that she had loved him since before his wife died but had kept it a secret because he was a married man. But now that he was a widower, would he pray about her? That was about eight months after his wife’s death.
Femi had met his late wife, Remi through one of his friends, and about nine months after, at the age of twenty nine, he became a married man. Both of them were not Christians then.
Few months into the marriage, with their first child on the way, they began to feel that they shouldn’t have married each other. They were not compatible and quarreled a lot. Remi always got his blood boiling with her bad attitude and temper. There were times she drove him to the brink of insanity. When angry, nothing was too big for her small mouth to utter and though she was a pharmacist, she could curse like a pro. He had wondered a number of times if she married him because he worked in a bank and earned a reasonable salary.
About two years after they had their first child, Abbey, they had started contemplating divorce, and he began to date Dara, an undergraduate in the University of Lagos but the sudden news that Remi was pregnant again stopped him from proceeding with the divorce.
About the time their daughter, Bola was born, Femi became a Christian. Knowing that it was wrong for a married man to be having an affair, he ended his relationship with Dara, though he had come to really like the lady. It was tough but he knew he had to do it for the sake of his marriage. God would want him to save his marriage and he decided to do just that. Fortunately for him, the following year, Remi also became a Christian.
They began to work on their marriage and things improved but they still had serious disagreements regularly which they tried to hide from people. Two years after, having won the Green Card Lottery, they relocated to America. The year he started the church in New York was the year she was diagnosed with cancer.
Not wanting to think about how she died, Femi got up. Everywhere in the room was quiet except for the tickling of the clock on the wall. He took the remote and pressed the volume button before going to the kitchen for a bar of chocolate. As he walked back to the living room, he smiled. He had to admit he had a sweet tooth. Well, thirty two of them actually, he thought with a chuckle.
As he sat down to enjoy the chocolate, he heard a knock on the gate and moments later, the pedestrian gate of the house opened and closed. Soon, his dog, Shasta started barking while the security man at the gate shouted “Keep quiet!”
The white and brown Chihuahua dog barked a lot and had high energy.
Femi guessed that the security man who was in his thirties had a visitor as the dog was familiar with the security man’s family that consisted of a wife and three children. The family lived in the one bedroom quarters by the gate, inside the compound.
Most evenings found Femi at home alone. He attended to people in the church office, allowing only family members and very close friends to come to the house. And once, he invited the ministers in the church to come to his house for a meeting. When he had to go out, he tried to return home on time.
Some evenings found him playing with the dog in the compound, especially when his son came home. Sometimes, the security man’s children joined him to play with the friendly dog.
Mondays and Saturdays were his two off-duty days, and he only went to church on those days if there was a special programme or something he had to do. He usually spent Mondays at the small office he rented for his transport business, to see Dayo, the man he employed to monitor the business.
When Femi relocated to Nigeria, he registered and started the business of providing bus services to young schools that could not afford to buy their own buses. He bought some buses, employed drivers, and now had a number of schools using the service. He also had two cabs, and with Dayo, an honest male graduate as the manager, Femi didn’t have any problem.
Femi’s mind went back to Ibie. He wondered if she was on Facebook. His friends and children had been asking him to join the social network but he hadn’t. He didn’t see it as very important to him. But now, he felt he should join so he would be able to search for Ibie.
Having been told by his children and some friends how to join and use Facebook, he turned to his laptop that was on the side table by him and began to press buttons. Soon, he had opened his own account on Facebook. He searched for Ibie James and found the name. There was no profile picture but the information about the person told him it was her. He would have loved to see her photos.
Her last entry on the page was in the morning. He read it.
God has a perfect plan for my life. Halleluyah!
Two days before then, it was:
I see the Lord working on our behalf, fighting our battles and doing what He promised to do for us in Jesus name. Praise His holy name.
Smiling, Femi sent a friend request to her. While he was sending similar requests to some church members, friends and families, he saw a message on his wall. It was from Ibie.
It’s good to have you on fcbk sir.
Smiling broadly, he posted on his wall.
THERE SHALL BE A PERFORMANCE of the things you were told by the Lord. The power of the Highest will overshadow you and bring those things to come to pass. You will smile and definitely move forward in this month in the name of Jesus for all things are possible in His name.
About two minutes after, he got a response from her.
Ame-e-e-e-e-n!
(To be continued )
To purchase this novel and others by the same author, contact us on WhatsApp + 234-8023000773
Leave a Reply